Kenin: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

By Richard PagliaroForce-fed the first double-bagel defeat of her career didn't give Sofia Kenin competitive indigestion.The Australian Open champion rebounded from her 6-0, 6-0 thrashing at the hands of doubles partner Victoria Azarenka in Rome fighting off 125th-ranked Russian Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at Roland Garros today.More: Ostapenko Aims for Top 10 ReturnThe fourth-seeded Kenin said she moved forward from "a disaster" defeat by not looking back. "After I lose a match, I don't like to watch myself," Kenin said. "Even when I'm winning and I know that I won, I still don't like watching myself."Yeah, after Rome, that's a match that I never want to watch. Of course Vika played really well. I'm not going to take anything away. She came out playing some really good tennis."Yeah, I just obviously felt like I couldn't find my game. After that, we came to Paris and I had a week or so to practice, get used to the clay. Yeah, I just tried to not think about that match. But, yeah, that match I'm never gonna watch. It was kind of a disaster."

A year ago, Kenin toppled Serena Williams in Paris en rout to the round of 16 losing to eventual-champion Ashleigh Barty. She was the first American to beat the 23-time Grand Slam champion in a major since Sloane Stephens did it at the 2013 Australian Open.Now, she's channeling her intensity aiming to surpass the round of 16 at a clay-court even for the first itme. Next up for Kenin is 93rd-ranked Ana Bogdan, who topped Timea Babos in her opener."I'm obviously really fierce and I'm not gonna give up," Kenin said. "I've obviously had lots of matches that I was down in the third or match points, you know. So, yeah, I'm gonna fight. Winning, I really love winning. I play to win. I get pretty hard on myself when I'm not winning and pretty upset with myself."So, yeah, I hate losing, so I guess it shows. You can obviously see that I guess losing is not an option. Of course everyone loses, but I obviously want to go for the win." ]]>